An infant just five weeks old became the youngest organ donor in Britain, saving a woman dying of kidney failure.

The tiny organs were transplanted into Samira Kauser after the child died of heart failure.

Miss Kauser, a 22-year-old healthcare assistant, said: ‘Words cannot express the gratitude I feel to the parents of this baby. My life was standing still – now I can live it.

Saved: Samira Kauser, 22, received a kidney from the youngest donor in the UK, a 5-week-old baby

‘They have lost so much more than I
can ever comprehend. Their only solace is that someone else has been
able to carry on with their life. It is a massive gift.’

The
seven-hour operation was carried out at St James’s University Hospital
in Leeds by surgeon Niaz Ahmad. He said that previously there had been a
cultural taboo about using donors so young but that consensus is being
swept away due to a chronic shortage of donors.

Kidneys fully function at around 37 weeks in the womb so could technically be transplanted into an adult from that time.

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Mr
Ahmad said: ‘For a number of years, there has been a mental block about
using such tiny kidneys, a feeling that they would be too small and not
work.

‘There was also a
cultural thing among surgeons that we had never used this age group,
because of the emotional difficulty of asking parents of a young baby if
they were willing. But there is such an acute shortage of organs, that
we are now prepared to do this, and this case, I hope, shows that it can
work.’

Pain-staking: The seven-hour transplant was carried out by surgeons at the St James's University Hospital in Leeds, pictured, and has now been declared a success after six months of monitoring

'BEATING HEART BABIES'

The UK Donation Ethics Committee is considering the use of organs from 'beating heart' babies.

These are children being kept alive on ventilators but are certified as brain dead.

A working group set up by the British
Association of Perinatal Medicine is working with the committee to discuss the controversial method.

The practice, already used
in adults and older children, allows medics to use a greater number of organs -
particularly the heart and small intestines - as they can be
maintained while the patient is kept alive on a ventilator.

With a
decision on the method is expected within six months.

After the baby died
earlier this year following a major infection, Mr Ahmad was told that
the parents wanted to donate the baby’s kidneys, which were only 4cm
long.

Miss Kauser, from
Halifax, had suffered more than 90 per cent renal failure due to a
genetic condition that caused cysts to damage her kidneys beyond repair.
She spent nine hours every night on a dialysis machine.

After
six months of careful monitoring, the operation has been declared a
success. The kidneys are functioning well and have grown to 7cm, with
the potential to reach 75 per cent of adult size. Miss Kauser, who works
at Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax, plans to get married next year
– something she never wanted to do while on dialysis.

She
said in an interview: ‘I remember the time the call came through. It
was 1.48am … Then I found out it was a child who had died and I felt so
sad. I thought about the parents and how much they wanted to donate and I
knew I had to have the operation, even though I was scared.’

Joe
Brierley, of the British Association of Perinatal Medicine, said organ
donation from babies is an important step when there are more than 7,000
people on transplant waiting lists.

He
said: ‘This should be something we offer as a suggestion to families of
dying babies … it is something positive arising from a total tragedy.’

The
UK Donation Ethics Committee is considering the use of organs from
babies who are kept alive on ventilators but are certified as
brain-dead.